"The lower, arc-shaped galaxy has the characteristic shape of a galaxy that has been gravitationally lensed — its light has passed near a massive object en route to us, causing it to become distorted and stretched out of shape," said NASA.

The smiling face is located in the galaxy cluster SDSS J0952+3434, and was shot with the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3).

The Hubble Space Telescope. Image courtesy: NASA

The Hubble telescope returned to normal operations on 26 October after successfully recovering a backup gyroscope replacing a failed in October.

Originally set to last 15 years, Hubble has now been in action making scientific discoveries for more than 28 years.